Sponsored content in association with Home Light
Taking a golf trip can mean your home stands empty for several days at a time.
If you’ve got great neighbours who you trust to hold a spare key or nearby relatives who can check on your home, then taking a golf holiday won’t worry you too much.
Some golfers don’t have this luxury or support network and will need to take steps to safeguard their home while they hit the fairways for a golf buddy trip or a golf break in the sun.
Global Golfer has partnered with Home Light, a leading American real estate platform, to bring you expert advice on how to safeguard your home while you’re away.
Security systems are a particularly valuable commodity these days, and for a good reason: people appreciate the peace of mind of being able to remotely access a camera showing their home is secure even when they are on vacation. However, security systems aren’t the only step to securing your home. Instead, securing one’s home should include a lot of practical thoughtfulness steps that can help you to know that any potential home invader will be deterred from even attempting a break-in.
Consider Your Locks and Whether Doors Are Strong
Various techniques for picking locks have prompted ever-changing lock technology, which can be a good thing. However, it is worthwhile to periodically evaluate whether any new methods of breaking and entering would affect your particular set of locks. Another aspect is to look at the exterior doors of your home themselves: if they are easily taken off hinges or are old and weathered, they become more of a target for enterprising burglars.
Create The Appearance of Being At Home
One of the biggest ways to deter a criminal entry is to simply appear to be at home. Most criminals don’t want to encounter people during a break-in, so being at home puts an additional obstacle. If you can put your downstairs lights on a timer that makes you appear to be home in the evenings even when you’re on vacation, that’s helpful. It’s even better if you can keep a car parked prominently at the home and have someone check on your home and bring in the mail whenever possible.
If You Have Pets, a Live-In Petsitter Brings Benefits
Pets are often taken to a kennel or take a vacation themselves if you leave home for a while, but an on-site petsitter who is also a housesitter can be a good investment. For some people, taking care of pets and having a nice place to stay with some peace and quiet is an appealing job offer, and they will often do the job for a reasonable fee in addition to a free place to stay for the duration of your vacation. Having this person home at your house helps to deter criminal activity as well as keeping your pets in their most comfortable place, making them less stressed by your absence and other new experiences during your vacation.
Recognize That Security Is On Your Buyers’ Minds
When you are choosing a security system, there are options that you might disconnect and carry with you, but many become ‘part of the house’ in the sense that a buyer will purchase the home and keep the system. For this reason, don’t just buy a security system that makes sense for you, but also one that will help your home appraise well. These systems have real value, even if they don’t always generate 100% ROI, and picking one that is highly regarded could be a sign that you take good care of your home, prompting buyers to consider your home more carefully in their house hunt.
Secure those Socials – Protect your Privacy
Outside of home security systems, there are obvious common-sense ways to safeguard your home while away golfing.
If your privacy settings on Facebook or other social media are public and fully open to a wide audience, it’s genuinely risky to put out a steady stream of photographs and content that tells the world you’re having a great holiday and you’re not at home.
If you also have content that features your car, house or area near your home on a social platform with public settings, it can be easy to figure out where you live just by snooping around online.
Returning home to a home invasion, to find you have been burgled, or your car stolen, is far worse than losing out on the dopamine hit you might gain psychologically from your friends and ex-school classmates liking pictures of your luxury holidays, meals out and spa treatments.
Be sensible, lock down your home and your social platforms, while you’re travelling to play golf or spending long periods overseas.